Impacts
Each of our services has monitoring processes embedded to show us where we are making an impact and where the service can improve further. Below are some examples of where we are monitoring our impact and some of our recommendations for development in the next two years.
Working with Schools to Improve IT Literacy
Using Cutting Edge Technology to Raise Young People’s Aspirations
Responding to Community Priorities
Serving the Need for Lifelong Learning
In 2005, 144 primary school children engaged in our after schools programmes. Teachers reported that children responded positively to the opportunities to learn in a creative context in ways that complemented the curriculum but provided freedom for creative expression. A number of children with Special Educational Needs reported finding opportunities to explore and learn in new ways. Our schools programme has highlighted the challenges of getting parents involved in ICT learning, with parents reporting they felt already too far behind their children’s IT capability. We will be working with local schools over the next year to build awareness of community-based learning programmes for parents and working with the adult education service to deliver a ‘Keeping up with the Kids’ programme.
Our FreqOUT! project illustrated the power of emergent technologies as a tool for engagement. Our four pilot workshops in 2005 engaged 32 young people, of whom 14 had previously experienced homelessness and 44% were from of BME backgrounds. 24 accreditations were awarded and the young people had the opportunity to exhibit their final artwork in esteemed venues including the
Our outreach training programmes are having a significant impact on the quality of life of older people in priority neighbourhoods. 63 older residents have engaged with our learning programmes and our Silver Café has been extremely popular, with participants reporting that access to and training on Internet use has provided them with opportunities to connect with family members, order shopping online and access online sources of health advice.
Responding to Community Priorities
Working with the Church Street Neighbourhood Management Team we developed a project that responded to the neighbourhood priority of environmental improvement. Our Community Development Team at Greenside developed a ‘Greenfingers’ programme which saw 650 residents access activities in the summer of 2005. The community support for these initiatives boosted our bid to the Lottery Community Recycling and Economic Development Programme (CRED) to deliver a two-year Neighbourhood Recycling and Environmental Awareness project across five
Serving the Need for Lifelong Learning
More than 1200 participants undertook a minimum of 30 hours guided learning at Queens Park New Media Centre and Firststep.com in 2005. The programmes included animation, web design, digital photography, graphic design, film-making and music technology. We achieved 20% growth in the number of learners participating by expanding our outreach services via mobile teaching suites. One of the challenges we identified in 2005 was the limitations of our management information system in helping us to segment our learning community - techniques which could help us to be more effective in our programme design and in our ability to fundraise for particular segments. In the final quarter of 2005 we conducted a comprehensive system requirements review and have secured funding via UK Online (Ufi) to develop a new Learner Management Information System. Development and implementation of this new system will be one of our key priorities for the year ahead. We look forward to this system enabling us to respond to learner needs more precisely and to track their progression further.